“Thank you, sir,” said the sergeant; “I understand quite enough now.”
A puff of smoke from the bushes; another; twenty. But no bullets came, the enemy firing from too long a distance. It was like a peaceable field day with blank cartridge burning.
Trinkitat harbour was in full view, and an energetic ship there, seeing the Arabs’ position thus indicated, tried to throw shells amongst them. But they, too, were out of range. Only, as shells when properly constructed burst somewhere, and these were sent over the heads of friends, their exploding short was dangerous, and after two or three attempts the experiment was dropped.
The main body of the cavalry followed in rear of the square, and to the left of it, in three lines.
“Look at those birds!” said Green to Tom, coming up to him to draw his attention. “What lots of them! They look like vultures surely, some of them.”
“And they are vultures, too. What carrion have they got there I wonder. Faugh! One can smell it from here.”
“Look at General Baker, what a stern expression he has got,” said Fitzgerald, letting his subaltern come up to him. “What a scene those birds and this stench must recall for him!”
“Ah, to be sure!” said Tom. “This was the line of the flight of his Egyptian army a month ago, when they let the Arabs massacre them without even attempting to resist. Well, we won’t do that if we can help it, will we, Green? We will strike a blow, even if we cut off our noses as well as our ears.”
“There, there, don’t chaff him, Strachan; you are too bad. And look to your half-company. Close up, there!”
The enemy kept up their innocuous out-of-distance popping, principally at the advance cavalry. The square was halted two or three times for a minute’s rest, which the men dragging the guns must have particularly wanted, considering the loose nature of the soil. Then on again, after between two and three hours’ march.